Category: lost & found

Election on November 5 2024 — beware of Trump

There are 14 days to go until election day in the USA. It is important to remember once again how devastating a second Trump presidency would be for the USA and the rest of the world.
If all the crazy things Trump has said in the last few months (Hannibal Lector, electrocuted, eat pets…) don’t seem to bother anyone, the danger of an authoritarian USA should make more sensible people rethink. Here are some points that come to mind:

• Defaming and threatening domestic opponents: Trump has a clear enemy image of where the enemy sits for him. These are not external opponents such as Iran, Russia or China. First and foremost are the internal enemies. He wants to deploy the National Guard and army against them. (Source: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-suggests-hell-use-the-military-on-the-enemy-from-within-the-u-s-if-hes-reelected)
• Vague allusions to a regime that functions without elections. Before Christians, Trump famously announced ‘you won’t have to vote any more’. (Source: West Palm Beach, Turning Point USA Believers Summit (August 2024))
• Dealing with the acts of insurrection on 6 January 2020: Trump is fundamentally lying about his own part in this attempted coup: ‘Be there, will be wild.’ was the slogan he used to invite his supporters to Washington. Trump is also spreading lies about the consequences of the uprising. According to what he says, no people were harmed on 6 January 2020.
• And one more thing: during his first presidency, many of those who may have originally supported him were counting on ‘grown-ups’ around him to prevent the worst from happening. It must be made clear here that there is no such thing as ‘grown-ups’ in the American constitution. All kinds of forces can exert influence on Trump, who is soft on wax and lacks a clear concept
• Trump has brought JD Vance on board. He is a supporter of ‘Project 2025’, which aims to systematically promote people who conform to this project to positions of power.

All in all, there are good reasons not to give this Humpty Dumpty Trump and his acolyte JD Vance the opportunity to eliminate the democratic constitution of the USA.
Vote blue or skip voting this time.

[also published as post on linked.in]

Comment to this absurdity by Kiffness

I take this video as the ultimate joke, but miss a hint to the  Vanityfair article. And somehow I’m afraid that there are Americans who believe everything put on the media…

Post scriptum November 6: They really voted for that scumbag, I can’t grasp it.
The more absurd something is, the more Americans are going to believe it.
What a disgrace for the (still) leading power in the west.
To illustrate the absurdity further I add something I found in my neighborhood at the Ehrenfeld station.

A lie is a lie is a lie

“Die Fahnen hoch, die Reihen fest geschlossen…”

The American presidential election campaign is good for many a surprise and provides endless satirical material that writers of the future will draw on for decades to come. A striking example:

In Springfield, Ohio, a cat went missing and turned up a few days later. End of story* End of story? No way! JD Vance used an unproven allegation by a neighbour of the cat’s owner to construct a story about pet-eating Haitians.

Trump spread this blunt lie during his tv debate with Kamala Harris. Trump spread this blunt lie during his televised debate with Kamala Harris. But that’s not the end of the story for the people who live in Springfield. Haitians, fleeing very great hardship in Haiti and blameless, were threatened and two schools had to temporarily close after JD Vance and Trump’s lie.

But this is not the end of the story for people who live in Springfield. Haitians were threatened and two schools had to be closed in the aftermath of JD Vance’ and Trump’s lie. A group of Proud Boys came to Springfield and tried to exert their power on the streets. Not much different than what the SA did in Nazi Germany: they occupied the streets and threatened anyone they considered enemies by their presence alone.

Americans, think twice before voting for these Trump and Vance characters …

* https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/cat-at-center-of-jd-vance-pet-eating-claims-is-alive-and-well [thanks to your fact checking and your article]

Mille gracie, Mr Draghi

Appeasement politics weren’t that successful in the past. Think of Hitler and Munich 1938 or Stalin in the thirties and fourties. Therefore I appreciate very much that Mr Draghi called Erdogan a “dictator” on Thursday. That’s clearly his main feature as you can see in his behaviour. Want some samples?

• Everyone who can menace his power is called “terrorist”, even if nice and peaceful people are concerned like Mr Kavala who is only fighting for human rights.
• Elections like that for the mayor of Istanbul are repeated if the outcome is unpleasant for Erdogan.
• To butter up the ultra nationalists Erdogan left the Istanbul Convention recently. This Convention was meant to blame violence against women. The need of protecting women rights can be clearly seen when you consider the hundreds of Turkish women murdered (470 in 2019) or hurt each year.
• Despite having a number of elected MPs the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) is effectively detained from exercising its rights of participation.

That’s what sensible people call a dictatorship and Erdogan therefore a “dictator”. Well done, Mr Draghi.

“Journey through the past” (Berlin 1931) / #3

Somehow weird or even pervert: To choose from a list those names that sound “jewish” . Welcome to Berlin 1931, a few months before the Nazis and some years before the Shoah. The picture above suggests really nothing of this drama. In any case I wanted to give those of the school mates of my mother a name that were endangered or slaughtered by the Nazis.

These are further names I found information on:
• Lore Strauss, born 2/14/1924. Combined with this name I found also the name “Lore Allard”, she was pupil at the Privaten Waldschule Kaliski, a school that could give quite a lot of attenders a shelter for some time. Lore Allard (Strauss) is mentioned with a letter to L. Kaliski from London dating 11/16/1981. If she is the Lore Strauss from my mother’s school, she had survived the Shoah.
• Hanna Markus: The Yad Vashem data base reveals a person called “Hanchen Markus”, from Berlin, but born in 1922. Result unclear
• Ruth Baer: for a Ruth Bähr, also born in 1924, living in Berlin, the Yad Vashem data base says “Während des Krieges war sie in Chelmno, Polen. Ruth wurde in der Schoah ermordet.” [She was during the war in Chelmno, Polen. Ruth was murdered during the Shoah.] For another Ruth Bähr the same data base says: “Ruth Bähr wurde 1924 geboren. Vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg lebte sie in Berlin, Deutsches Reich. Während des Krieges war sie in Berlin, Deutsches Reich und wurde mit transport 4 von Berlin, Berlin (Berlin), Stadt Berlin, Deutsches Reich nach Lodz, Getto, Polen am 01/11/1941 deportiert. Ruth wurde in der Schoah ermordet.” [Ruth Baehr was born in 1924. Prior to WWII she lived in Berlin, Germany. During the war she was in Berlin, Germany. Deported with Transport 4 from Berlin, Berlin (Berlin), City of Berlin, Germany to Lodz,Ghetto,Poland on 01/11/1941. Ruth was murdered in the Shoah.] Whether one of these persons by the name of Ruth Bähr is identical with Ruth Baer, is hard to decide, but possible.

The name list (of my grandmother?) is not that reliable. So I show a picture of the whole form of my mother at a school party on top of this page.

A list of those on the picture, but the list was obviously produced later.

 

Siehe auch -- see also 
English -- Seppel (Joseph) Walter & Martha Esther Hirschberg  
Deutsch -- Seppel (Joseph) Walter & Martha Esther Hirschberg  

English -- Whereabouts of Lilli Cassel 
Deutsch -- Hintergründe zu Lilli Cassel 

English -- Class mates on an excursion / List of all class mates 
Deutsch -- Klassenfoto vom Ausflug / Liste aus Fotoalbum

 

“Journey through the past” (Berlin 1931) / #2

 

No one would associate these pictures with the genocide to come: Many girls having fun at a birthday party. I also found these pictures in the photo album of my mother. It shows Lili Cassel (first in the row, picture on top) with her friends in May 1931 in Berlin. My mother is the second to last. Fortunately Lili Cassel could escape to England with her sister Ewa. Later the whole family emigrated to the U.S.

In 1952 Lili married Erich Wronker and was in her professional life a renowned illustrator of books and a Hebrew calligrapher and typograph. She got an obituary in the NY Times when she died in January 2019. Shalom, Lili

A letter to Lili’s nanny from 1933 can be seen here.

See also the London Diary.

 

Siehe auch -- see also 
English -- Seppel (Joseph) Walter & Martha Esther Hirschberg  
Deutsch -- Seppel (Joseph) Walter & Martha Esther Hirschberg  

English -- Whereabouts of Lilli Cassel 
Deutsch -- Hintergründe zu Lilli Cassel 

English -- Class mates on an excursion / List of all class mates 
Deutsch -- Klassenfoto vom Ausflug / Liste aus Fotoalbum

 

Boeing 737 Max hassle not yet over

Last year, the 34 year old Boeing engineer, Curtis Ewbank, complained officially about shortcomings in the design and control of the Boeing 737 MAX production. According to the Seattle Times he now again has revealed severe and fundamental critics concerning this same jet in a report to a U.S. Senate committee.

Moreover, he criticizes  the FAA heavily: “If the FAA was truly regulating in the public interest, it would take action against Boeing for its continued deception and gross errors in the design and production of the 737 MAX by withdrawing Boeing’s production certificate.”

See also Designfehler wie für ein Lehrbuch (German).

 

What had happened to the Jewish friends? Berlin 1931 #1

In the beginning of the thirties my mother lived in Berlin Dahlem. She attended the Volksschule Lansstraße (?) in this quarter. Looking at two atmospheric pictures from her photo album I wondered what might have happened to her Jewish school mates, Martha Esther Hirschberg and her brother Walter Joseph (“Seppl”) Hirschberg. The photo was labeled “Mit Martha und Seppl Hirschberg Juli 1931” (“With Martha and Seppl Hirschberg July 1931”).

Looking on MyHeritage I got to know to my relief that both had survived World War II and the Shoah: Martha Esther Hirschberg died in 1979 and Walter Joseph Hirschberg in 1998. Apparently, Walter Joseph Hirschberg emigrated to San Diego. It would be nice to gain more information on both and the school they attended. I would be happy to send my photos to relatives of the Hirschberg siblings.

 

Siehe auch -- see also 
English -- Seppel (Joseph) Walter & Martha Esther Hirschberg  
Deutsch -- Seppel (Joseph) Walter & Martha Esther Hirschberg  

English -- Whereabouts of Lilli Cassel 
Deutsch -- Hintergründe zu Lilli Cassel 

English -- Class mates on an excursion / List of all class mates 
Deutsch -- Klassenfoto vom Ausflug / Liste aus Fotoalbum